{"id":26958,"date":"2019-12-10T14:51:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T20:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=26958"},"modified":"2019-12-10T14:51:55","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T20:51:55","slug":"theyre-getting-awfully-high-up-that-cliff-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2019\/12\/10\/theyre-getting-awfully-high-up-that-cliff-face\/","title":{"rendered":"They’re Getting Awfully High Up That Cliff Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen conveniently summarizes<\/a> GOP<\/em><\/strong> reaction to the release of the report generated by the investigation of the FBI investigation of the Trump Campaign as conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz:<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham appeared on Fox News, for example, and\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the Horowitz report pointing to \u201ca government trying to overthrow a president,\u201d which is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel\u00a0argued<\/a>\u00a0that the inspector general\u2019s findings proved that the FBI \u201cspied on\u201d the Trump campaign, which again, is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0his takeaway from the inspector general\u2019s findings was that partisans in the Justice Department \u201cspied on a political opponent,\u201d which is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who happens to be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went so far as to\u00a0describe<\/a>\u00a0the FBI\u2019s investigation into the Russia scandal as a \u201ccriminal enterprise,\u201d which in no way reflects what the Horowitz report actually said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I skipped over President Trump’s commentary. In case you missed Benen’s opinion in the above, here it is:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re left with a dynamic in which Republican leaders, en masse, have examined our reality, found it politically inconvenient, and replaced it with an alternate reality they find more satisfying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I haven’t read the Horowitz report yet. Perhaps I shall during my Christmas vacation. Perhaps I won’t. Why? Because I’ve found that in the few spot checks I’ve had time to perform, such as with the Mueller Report, the GOP<\/strong><\/em> and conservative media has a far, far worse performance in interpreting the reports and events than do the mainstream, traditional media sources.<\/p>\n

That’s not to say the traditional sources are always right, but if you don’t have time to read these sometimes huge reports, it’s best to go with the organizations with the best track record, and who will print corrections and retractions when necessary. Democratic sources, in this case, I’d consider to be directed towards their partisans and not towards serious observers.<\/p>\n

But my real point here is this: Aren’t the GOP<\/strong><\/em> leaders who persist in misinterpreting and spinning the various results getting farther and farther out on that spindly limb called<\/p>\n

M E N D A C I T Y<\/strong><\/p>\n

and when it breaks they’ll discover they were hanging over a cliff’s edge called<\/p>\n

R E G R E T S ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With each lie, spin, and manipulation, conservative (or what passes for conservatism these days) becomes less and plausible, believable, and trustable. Perhaps the GOP<\/em><\/strong> leadership should consider the future of its movement, if it even believes this is an ideology rather than a cover for raking in the dollars, and maybe put out the word:<\/p>\n

B E\u00a0 \u00a0T R U T H F U L .<\/strong><\/p>\n

Same, of course, goes for Democrats – but it may not sting so much for them.<\/p>\n

But can they? Or are is the GOP<\/strong><\/em> so caught up in winning – fighting the internecine war<\/em>, as Professor Turchin might put it<\/a> – that they see no value in simple truth? That’s my bet. McConnell and his fellows will throttle any efforts to make Trump pay for his rampant mendacity, they’ll celebrate their immediate victories – and if anyone ever lays out for the base, in convincing detail, how they were scammed, the current GOP<\/strong><\/em> leadership may never recover their effectiveness or reputations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen conveniently summarizes GOP reaction to the release of the report generated by the investigation of the FBI investigation of the Trump Campaign as conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz: White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham appeared on Fox News, for example, and\u00a0said\u00a0the Horowitz report pointing to \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26959,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26958\/revisions\/26959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}